Happy February!

To celebrate the beginning of February, I decided to purchase some roses before the prices increase 3x for Valentine’s Day. It’s the Connecticut Yankee in me. I also bought some red carnations. I think carnations are considered inferior to other flower types, which is unfortunate. A few years ago I used roses and carnations in a centerpiece I created for a charitable event. After making 110 centerpieces, I thought I would never want to even look at another rose or carnation, but truly, I like the combination of both flowers with their red tones and textures. Plus carnations are more affordable than roses and are good fillers.

In looking for a different container, I found an old white milking pail, with rust and all that we purchased for one of our barn sales.

I soaked some floral foam in water.

And then placed the wet foam inside a large Ziploc bag to keep any excess water away from the metal bottom of the pail.

I added the roses first, pushing them into the foam.

Carnations typically come with their petals tightly closed. With some gentle manipulation, you can get a fuller carnation in a few seconds.

After using the 12 roses and the 12 carnations, the container still needed some filling. I roamed the yard and clipped some greens to add to the empty spaces.

After the arrangement was completed, I thought I would hang it with a red ribbon on the red front door. However, the red ribbon and red flowers just got lost against our red door. Too much red. So I hung it on the side gate which leads to the rose garden. It really pops against the dark green door!

With our chilly morning temperatures, I expect this will last for quite a while. Of course, you could easily make this with high quality artificial roses and dry foam as well. Here is another shot of the milk pail with my trusty companion, our pocket beagle, Sox.

May your February be filled with love and joy!

P.S. Thank you to Megan, my daughter, Elisabeth’s friend for lending her beautiful hands to this photo shoot!

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Holiday Home Tour

Welcome to our first Holiday Home Tour at Bella Terra! This house was made for holiday decorations. Having a red front door already sets the Chrismas mood!

At the front entry, my husband put up the lighted trees that are situated on both side of the front door. This year’s wreath is a simple one and the plaid ribbon is used throughout the house. I added magnolia leaves and different greens for texture. Plaid ribbon from Costco.

I kept the entry classic with garland up the staircase, beveled fleur-de-lis mirrors on the steps, and I changed out the painting near the petticoat table with a Christmas themed one.

The “teddy bear” tree used to be upstairs outside the children’s bedrooms, however, I thought it would be fun to put it in the corner of the entry as it is scaled appropriately.

In the dining room, the deep mantle over the fireplace is the perfect place for our snow globe collection. Every year, each child gets a snow globe and an ornament until they turn 21. So if you do the math, my son is 21, my daughter is 19 and my youngest is 15. My husband keeps saying, “Enough with the snow globes!!!”. I only put out 20 of them this year but I love how magical they look with the lights under the snow.

The living room mantle is deep like the dining room, and I added garland, white lights, large balls and plaid ribbon. Here’s a “before the tree” picture.

The tree is a real evergreen and my back is still aching from putting on the numerous strings of lights. But the fresh tree smells so good!

When the children were 2 years old, we had a local artist, Virginia Cook, capture their childhood moments in an oil painting. Beneath the paintings, the stockings are hung by the chimney with care…..

For those of you who have been in my kitchen, it never looks this clean!!! Thanks to the magic of photography, all the piles are cropped out! Typically I decorate all the windows, but due to lack of time and energy, the decorations are limited to the pastry rack and around the stove.

Years ago, I decided to hang holiday art and take our regular paintings down during the holidays. Simple posters were framed and then each painted with brushstrokes of gel matte medium (found in an artist supply store) to look like original paintings. Here’s one with Santa cooking in the kitchen!

Between the dining room and kitchen, is the breakfast room. Nutcrackers we’ve collected from our travels are displayed here.

The most lived-in room at Bella Terra is the family room. Since our pets freely roam this room, I decorate with non-breakable holiday pillows and wreaths. For more on this room, see a previous post.

The back porch, with the outdoor heaters, is the place we entertain during the winter months. A vintage tablecloth adds color to the dining area.

The guest cottage gets a simple lighted wreath, as the cottage colors are already festive.

My husband hangs the wreath on the well tower each year. It, too, is lighted and has a festive glow at night. My dog, Cooper, who is huge, looks so diminutive in this picture…

I’m still learning so much about taking photos. Many thanks to professional photographer, Adam Peter , for taking most of the pictures above.

Thank you for visiting and I hope you enjoyed a bit of the holiday here at Bella Terra!

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Creating a Centerpiece with Ordinary Things

It is very easy to get into the habit of doing the same thing over and over again-especially when something is tried and true. At the holidays, I attempt to switch things up a bit and create new ideas out of common things. As Susan and I were getting more treasures out of the barn, we came across several pieces of milk glass and decided to create a simple holiday arrangement/centerpiece.

We started with a tray. This wooden tray was in the mud room, filled with papers that I hadn’t gone through in quite some time. After wiping off the dust, we were had our base piece. Any tray that you have laying around will do.

Next we chose this dish towel as it is a nice holiday red color. I like the texture and pattern, but again, any towel, napkin or piece of fabric of your choosing will do. Placing it at an angle creates interest. Probably should have ironed it, but once it is covered, who will know?

Next we added a combination of artificial greens and some fresh clippings from the yard. Getting different textures and shades of green was the objective.

We also added some ornaments. We found these large glass orbs on one of our shopping trips and I love the vibrant color. Any ornament will do. Next we took a few pieces of the milk glass and filled them with white roses and red berries. Using different container shapes adds multiple heights. The all-white color theme gives it consistency. You could use coffee cups, glasses, any container ready to hold water and flowers. Also, the rule of thumb is to have an odd number of pieces-not sure who’s rule it is, but it seems to work!

Lastly, we added a taper candle in a milk glass holder for height and dimension. This was a simple, easy and yet festive arrangement that would look great on any table. The milk glass containers will be available soon on our online store. Please let me know what everyday items you use for centerpieces! Happy creating!

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Bring in the holidays!

I am in awe of the people who are able to have their holiday cards arrive the day after Thanksgiving. Seriously. This weekend, we tried to take our family photo for our card since all the children were home. Even though I set up the tripod and the day was overcast, you would think that ONE photo would have come out perfectly….but nooooooooooo. My youngest daughter, Elisabeth kept flying in front of the camera so I have lots of these shots (which I secretly love 🙂 And the dogs would come and go so I have numerous pictures of half a tail, part of a head…

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You would think that trying to get 5 people to look at the camera, not move, have good posture, keep eyes open, not use the “V” sign over someone’s head, without belly laughing, would be easy….I have a new respect for professional photographers. Also, why do I look so much older in these photos than I feel??? Arggggg.

Since I haven’t even LOOKED at card styles yet, I am truly impressed with those organized souls that pop their cards in the mail the day before Thanksgiving. My hat’s off to you!

Speaking of Thanksgiving, I believe it was the first year that all the food came out of the oven at the same time and arrived at the table hot and delicious. Here is our turkey before it went into the oven.

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Now it’s off to Christmas holiday decorating. I know there are many ways to celebrate the season. It is a magical time, but it can also be hectic and stressful. So whatever you celebrate, or even if you don’t celebrate, please make extra time to enjoy your fellow man. If we were all a little kinder to each other, our world would be a better place. Don’t you agree?

So, I started the Christmas decorating. It’s fun to pull out items that you haven’t seen for a year and for some reason I am always surprised at what I find. My collection of holiday pillows create an instant seasonal look to the family room, as well as the wreaths that are hung on the interior of each of the windows. My husband placed a grommet in the ribbon and put small cup hooks on each window frame, so hanging the wreaths is a breeze.

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Since the family room is also home to the pets (2 dogs and 2 cats), the holiday decorating is a bit limited-nothing breakable. So with wreaths on all the windows, numerous holiday pillows on the sofa (purchased from Pottery Barn), and a few pieces of Christmas art, I consider this room decorated.

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The vintage picture below was a gift from my dear friend, Janie. She is the expert at giving unique and thoughtful gifts. Actually, this is the “Janie corner” because in the background hanging on the wall, are two rooster oil paintings, also done by her….How lucky am I to have such a talented friend!

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One room down and many more to go. It takes a good week to decorate Bella Terra, some years I do more than others. If I am organized, I hope to have a holiday home tour for you before too long.

Here’s my very first winter painting! I donated it to a charitable event back in Connecticut. Fortunately, someone liked it and bought it.

I’m off to find holiday cards and at least one decent photo of our brood! Happy Monday!

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Do you decorate for Halloween?

I have such fond memories of Halloween as a child in Connecticut. Halloween night was always chilly with the leaves floating off the trees. We would make our own costumes and go Trick-or-Treating in the neighborhood. The scariest part was running by the dark graveyard that was across the street. I can remember “surviving” the harrowing experience.

Mom always painted faces on pumpkins and would outfit them with hats. The exterior of the house was decorated with cornstalks and pumpkins. I can still smell fall in my memories and going through the pillowcase of candy at the end of the night. So when Halloween comes around, I sense the little girl in me getting excited over this holiday. So, do you decorate for Halloween?

In the past, when the children lived here at home, we would always celebrate this spooky holiday. As a result, we have our own Halloween traditions. Meet Mr. Bones and the two mummies that still startle me when I walk into the front hall. And of course, the gravestones, dead rats and a motion-activated creepy butler happily comes out of the garage every October.

The messages on the faux headstones, still make me laugh as it reminds me of waiting in line at the Haunted Mansion at Disneyland.

With multiple fireplaces and deep mantels at Bella Terra- decorating for the holidays is such fun!

Using a spider web black throw and orange lights as a base, the dining room mantel becomes a mad scientist’s laboratory. It is such fun to fill them with skulls, potion bottles, black birds and skeletons.

Thank you for letting me share this post with you again. I just love the autumn and all the fun it brings. Not sure if we will be going all out for Halloween this year. Do you think I should decorate with ghouls and goblins?

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